1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and corresponding method for generating data to control printing by any one of a number of printers in a printing network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and corresponding method which uses combinations of data generating programs to generate data for controlling any of a plurality of printers of a printing network which is configured, for example, as a local area network (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing networks are known which comprise a plurality of printers and a plurality of host computers connected by a network, such as a LAN, so that the computers can share the printers. In this type of printing system, a user selects from among the printers on the network a desired printer appropriate for the type of data being printed. A printer driver related to the selected printer generates print data and transmits the print data to the printer, which prints the data in the appropriate manner.
The type of printing system described above has certain disadvantages. For example, the printers normally are in a one-to-one correspondence with the printer drivers, and thus must be configured for use with its respective printer in advance of printing, which requires considerable time and effort. Since numerous types of printers are now available, it is possible to incorrectly configure the printer driver for a particular printer if care is not taken.
In an attempt to mitigate this problem, printer drivers have been developed which are pre-configured to be compatible with different types of printers. To associate this type of printer driver with a particular type of printer in the network, that type of printer can be selected, for example, from a list of compatible printers provided by the driver. However, if a new printer which is not on the list of compatible printers is connected to the network as an additional printer or in place of an existing printer, the printer driver must be reconfigured to function with this new printer.
A continuing need therefore exits for a printing network having a plurality of printers that can easily be selected for printing, and to which additional printers can be added without the need for reconfiguring the print drivers to operate with the new printers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for generating print data in a manner compatible for use by a plurality of printers in a printing system.
Another object of the present invention to provide a print data generation system for use with a printing network comprising a plurality of printers, and which includes execution modules that generate print data compatible with the printers in the printing network.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing a print data generation system, for use with a printer network including a plurality of printers, comprising a plurality of execution modules and a print data generator. Each of the execution modules includes data representing print functions of at least one printer that is selected from among the printers in the network. The print data generator is controlled to execute certain of the execution modules in association with each other to generate print data for printing by the selected printers in the network. Therefore, by executing the appropriate execution modules in the appropriate manner, the print data generation system is made compatible with any of the printers in the network.
The print data generator further comprises a module calling element which selects that appropriate execution module for execution based on module configuration information provided by the selected printers. The print data generator also includes a module configuration information requester which requests the module configuration information from the selected printers, and determinator which determines whether all of the necessary execution modules are registered with a management table. If some of the necessary execution modules are not registered, the requester obtains those of execution modules via the network. Alternatively, the print data generator generates the print data by executing only the registered modules, so that the selected printers print with limited print capability.